Craig Venter to Announce 1st Artificially Created Life

[Editors note:  Well folks, it seems as if we couldn't even get the Venter piece out before the controversy started.  Daily Galaxy has learned that ETC Group, a Canadian bioethics organization whose eagle-eyed spotters noticed the publication of patent 20070122826 last week, has asked Dr Venter to withdraw the patent—and, on the assumption that he will not, have asked the patent office to reject it on the grounds that it is contrary to public morality and safety. ETC's main objection is that Venter's patent claims are too widely drawn and that there are areas where mankind should not meddle.  As Pat Mooney, the group's boss, put it, "For the first time, God has competition." ]

Not to toot the Daily Galaxy horn too much, but the previously mentioned book, the excellent Duncan Ewing Hunter's, The Geneticist Who Played Hoops With My DNA, also featured an interview with one Craig Venter.  At the time, Venter headed the controversial Celera group, a privately owned research group competing to map, and profit from, the human genome.

Our version of the Encyclopedia Galactica, ie. wikipedia, tells us,

He was the former president and founder of Celera Genomics, which became famous for running a parallel version of the Human Genome Project of its own for commercial purposes, using shotgun sequencing technology in 1999. The aim of the Celera project was to create a database of genomic data that users could subscribe to for a fee. This proved very unpopular in the genetics community and spurred several groups to redouble their efforts to produce the full sequence and release it as open access. DNA from 5 individuals was used by Celera to generate the sequence of the human genome; one of the 5 individuals used in this project was Venter. The Human Genome Project, which was composed of many groups from around the world, rendered the attempt to privatise the process unfeasible.

Venter was fired by Celera in early 2002 after it became clear that selling genome data would not become profitable and Venter resisted efforts by the company board to change the strategic direction of the company.

Note here the key characteristics that will soon be at play in Venter's new enterprise, the ego, the inability to compromise, the profit motive and the undeniable talent and curiosity.

Today's Guardian reports,

The Guardian revealed that a team of 20 top scientists assembled by Mr Venter, led by the Nobel laureate Hamilton Smith, has already constructed a synthetic chromosome, a feat of virtuoso bio-engineering never previously achieved. Using lab-made chemicals, they have painstakingly stitched together a chromosome that is 381 genes long and contains 580,000 base pairs of genetic code.

The DNA sequence is based on the bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium which the team pared down to the bare essentials needed to support life, removing a fifth of its genetic make-up. The wholly synthetically reconstructed chromosome, which the team have christened Mycoplasma laboratorium, has been watermarked with inks for easy recognition.

It is then transplanted into a living bacterial cell and in the final stage of the process it is expected to take control of the cell and in effect become a new life form. The team of scientists has already successfully transplanted the genome of one type of bacterium into the cell of another, effectively changing the cell's species. Mr Venter said he was "100% confident" the same technique would work for the artificially created chromosome.

The new life form will depend for its ability to replicate itself and metabolize on the molecular machinery of the cell into which it has been injected, and in that sense it will not be a wholly synthetic life form. However, its DNA will be artificial, and it is the DNA that controls the cell and is credited with being the building block of life.

The Guardian makes no mention of Venter's previous attempts at controversial patent applications on the building blocks of life.

The 2006 "Greediest Biopirate" Award went to the genomic entrepreneur Craig Venter. The 'Captain Hook Awards for Biopiracy' are announced biannually by the Coalition Against Biopiracy, an informal group of civil society and peoples' organizations including the Indigenous Peoples Biodiversity Network, SEARICE and the ETC Group.

Venter's project involved sailing the seven seas in his yacht, Sorcerer II, collecting samples of seawater and 'shotgun sequencing' the genes from the microbes found in the water.

So what offense did these organizations think Venter had committed? Their position is that the world's oceans and its contents are public property - a biological commons - and that Venter, through this project, would be converting the gene sequences of its organisms into a private treasure chest. If Venter were simply identifying micro-organisms and then patenting them or their genes then this would be a straightforward accusation - however, following legal challenges to some of his earlier human genome projects, his non-profit organization now has a policy of making all its genomic data publicly available and of not taking out such patents.

My impression is that his critics have missed their chance - they would have been far more justified in giving Venter the award in 1999 when, as president of Celera Genomics, he aimed to create a database of genomic data from the human genome that user could subscribe to for a fee. This encouraged other scientists, through the Human Genome Project, to sequence the entire genome and publish it for free before the data could be privatized.

Mr Venter believes designer genomes have enormous positive potential if properly regulated. In the long-term, he hopes they could lead to alternative energy sources previously unthinkable. Bacteria could be created, he speculates, that could help mop up excessive carbon dioxide, thus contributing to the solution to global warming, or produce fuels such as butane or propane made entirely from sugar.

"We are not afraid to take on things that are important just because they stimulate thinking," he said. "We are dealing in big ideas. We are trying to create a new value system for life. When dealing at this scale, you can't expect everybody to be happy."

Mr Venter said he had carried out an ethical review before completing the experiment. "We feel that this is good science," he said. He has further heightened the controversy surrounding his potential breakthrough by applying for a patent for the synthetic bacterium.

Pat Mooney, director of a Canadian bioethics organization, ETC group, said the move was an enormous challenge to society to debate the risks involved. "Governments, and society in general, is way behind the ball. This is a wake-up call - what does it mean to create new life forms in a test-tube?"
A wake up call indeed!

My personal opinion is that Craig Venter is like an Ayn Rand hero run amok; Reardon DNA anyone!

Strap yourselves in... this could be a bumpy ride.

Posted by Garth Sullivan.

Related Galaxy posts:

"Voyage of the Beagle 2" -The Search for Microbial DNA
“Playing God” -Scientists in Final Stage of Creating Man-made Life
Darwin's Lab: Scientists on Brink of Creating Life
The "Blue Brain" & Human Consciousness -Scientists Create Artificial Brain
"Mind Children": Transhumanism & the Search For Genetic Perfection
“What is Life?” A New Breed of Robots Are Causing Scientists to Question
Can Humans Live to 1,000? Some Experts Claim We Can — Others Want to Prevent That

Comments

[M Remmy]

sciences is not something to fear. It is a way in that we can explore our ability to improve upon Gods original model. After all we have been give an terminal desire for exploration so let us embrace this give while improving life.